Young Australian Faces Charges for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage captured a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and design.
Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
